Sticking-plaster solutions to the teaching crisis

SIR – Instead of spending £10million on recruiting 600 foreign teachers who are unfamiliar with our national curriculum (report, July 15), the Government should try to find out why so many qualified, experienced teachers are leaving the profession.

Sticking plasters won’t improve the situation: the Government needs to get to the root of the problem. It should be speaking to teachers – not those in the private sector or the leafy suburbs, but in the real world where they are often working more than 70 hours a week (including in the evenings and at weekends) in order to keep abreast of the ludicrous targets that have been imposed on them. Denise Hosking

Upminster, Essex